Hi all,
Busy weekend here! Oklahoma! went really well. We had no major back/onstage snafoos, good audience numbers and really positive comments from the audiences. Despite my worrying it wouldn't come together, it did, and we all had a lot of fun doing it. Somehow it always comes together in the end. I also went to a baby shower brunch Sunday morning and got lots of ideas for cute girl things to get for my niece too!
My benchpress tournament was ok. If you care for the details, read on, if not, skip this paragraph! I didn't do as well as I would have liked to/ have done in training at the gym. I had 3 tries. I opened with 105#, which I pushed but didn't feel great (I didn't feel warmed up, and the weights were feeling heavy to me Saturday). Next I did 115#, but though I pressed it the press was disqualified b/c I sort of paused (not on purpose!) on the way up, and apparently I lowered and re-upped the bar during my pause. I didn't think I lowered it, but who knows... next time I tried 120# and didn't get it. So the official weight was my first press of 105#. I was the only woman in my age/weight class, though, so I got first place for my class. I was disappointed b/c just last weekend I pressed 125# at the gym, which is my
PR. At last year's tournament my official weight pressed was also 105#, though at the time the most I could do in training was around 110-115#. I'm not sure if I just had an off day, was thrown off by an unusual sleep schedule (I slept almost 8 hours but went to bed much later than normal b/c of the play, which I'd been doing all week) but I also suspect I didn't warm up enough. The warm-up area includes 2 benches for all the lifters, and it is usually me and my training partner Kathy competing with about 35 big burly guys for space. They are nice but you can tell they want the women lifting the wimpy weights to get out of the way so they can load the 45# plates onto the barbells. Sooo... overall a bit discouraging, but I couldn't let myself get too upset b/c I still had to go perform on stage for 3 hours that night.
The rest of the team from my gym did really well, though. Kathy, my training partner, is 63 and there are no records at all in the Southeast Powerlifting Federation for a woman her age, so she set a record at 105#. A bunch of the younger guys who just started training this year did really well, and my trainer, Tim, also got a regional record...maybe a world record?
Like last year, I'm debating if I should do it again. I don't really care about the competition itself, don't care for the competition entry fee, but I do like having the comradery of having training partner at the gym and people expecting me to show up. And I did get really excited when I first pressed 125#! Of course maybe I would like the competition more if I felt like I could do better! I do have quite a while to think about it... The only other athletic competitions of any sort around here are 5K's (which I've done) and this BP tournament. I seem to do better when I've got someone else pushing me to train and people to train with, so I wish there was more in this area! I think I'm going to focus on cardio and running in particular right now... maybe think about that in a week or two after I've had some time to relax.
Jessica, great job on your race! I'm so glad that you did it even if you weren't feeling your best. And happy birthday to Carter too!
Marie, I think no matter how carefully we plan our workouts, fuel our bodies, etc. etc. we all have on and off days. Glad you had a good workout!
Silver, I'm confused. You're saying you LOVE Leonard Cohen?
The name sounds familiar to me but I can't say if I've ever heard any of his music. Michele, maybe he's related to my second grade teacher, Jane Cohen?
Michele, isn't it a good thing the kids are returning their books? At least you get to spend more time w/ DH!
Ward, gl w/ stage 7!
Meg, sorry about the tree. This hasn't been a good year for natural disasters for you, has it?
Have a great week all!